World Watch: The Not-So-Beautiful Game

* Egypt: Clashes have taken place between Cairo police and mourners angry at military authorities in the aftermath of a deadly soccer riot on Wednesday in Port Said.

* Space: International astronomers concluded that a new planet located about twenty-two light years from Earth might be able to support life.

* Europe: At least one hundred people are dead as a result of cold spell that has hit several European countries.

* Afghanistan: U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta indicated that troops could withdraw early from Afghanistan in 2013 though it remains to be seen if NATO forces will do the same.

Video Source– YouTube via Al Jazeera English (” Egypt has declared three days of mourning for the more than 70 people who died at a football stadium amid violent clashes between rival supporters in the northern city of Port Said.”)

Online Sources – The Guardian, National geographic, TVNZ, USA TODAY

Daily Headlines: February 2, 2012

* Mexico: According to the central bank remittances to Mexico grew by 6.9% in 2011; thus, representing the biggest rate of increase since 2006.

* Guatemala: Can the government and civil society unite to combat a “relentless wave of femicides”?

* Brazil: Social media research company Semiocast concluded that Brazil leapfrogged Japan to become the second most-represented country on Twitter.

* Venezuela: Trade between Cuba and Venezuela reportedly soared by 78% to over $6 billion in 2010.

Image Source – Flickr via navart (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, PC Magazine, IPS, El Universal

Nuestro Cine: Viva Violeta!

Last week Demián Bichir of Mexico and Argentine-French actress Bérénice Bejo received Academy Awards nominations in the categories of Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, receptively. While the recognition of these Latin American actors was well deserved, the Academy sadly overlooked films from the region when choosing the finalists to the Best Foreign Film category. Not a single film from Latin America made the January shortlist, much less the list of five finalists.

Movies such as a tender tale of friendship from Cuba and a ripped-from-the-headlines story from Mexico where ignored by the Academy although Chile’s entry to the Oscars got a boost several days ago at the Sundance Film Festival.

According to the Santiago Times:

“Violeta Went to Heaven,” directed by Andrés Wood, won best international picture for its devastating biopic about Violeta Parra, a Chilean folk musician and national icon whose songs encapsulate the fight for social equality in Chile. 



“It speaks well of the film that it can be appreciated outside of Chile,” Wood told La Tercera. “The award means “Violeta” will be distributed in U.S. so now more people will be able to appreciate it.”



In winning best international film, “Violeta” follows in the footsteps of Sebastian Silva’s “La Nana,” a Chilean production which delves into the dominant social hierarchies and prejudices of Latin American society. “La Nana” won the award in 2010.

Meanwhile, Chilean film “Young and Wild”, which was the first work by director Marialys Rivas, won best international script at Sundance.

The following is the trailer to “Violeta Went to Heaven,” a film that celebrates the trials and tribulations of one of Chile’s most celebrated individuals:

Parra committed suicide forty-five years ago this Sunday though her influence has certainly lived on.

Video Source – YouTube via violetapelicula

Online Sources – Fox News Latino, The Latin Americanist, NPR, The Santiago Times

Daily Headlines: February 1, 2012

* Peru: Authorities are trying to avoid the growing encroachment against natives like the Maschco-Piro tribe who reside in remote areas of the Amazon.

* Latin America: Drought conditions in have led to a reported drop in the planting of marijuana in Mexico and a decrease in the corn yields of several South American countries.

* Argentina: Canadian mining firm Osisko suspended a gold mining project in the La Rioja province after weeks of protests by locals and environmental groups.

* Dominican Republic: The World Trade Organization backed a claim by several Central American countries against import tariffs by the Dominican Republic.

Video Source – YouTube via ITN News

Online Sources- National Geographic, Fox News Latino, UPI, BBC News, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: January 31, 2012

* Haiti: Haitian human rights groups as well as the U.N. criticized a judge’s decision yesterday to try former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier only on charges of embezzlement and corruption.

* Latin America: According to the Iranian state-run media, the government has launched a 24-hour Spanish-language television network.

* Cuba: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff arrived in Cuba yesterday and is expected to meet with President Raul Castro before traveling to Haiti later this week.

* South America: Could South America serve as the next major market for India’s Bollywood movies?

Video Source – YouTube via telesurenglish (Note that this video was first posted on January 20, 2012).

Online Sources- Boston.com, Christian Science Monitor, BBC News, Fox News Latino

World Watch: Money Woes

* Europe: European Union leaders are supposedly close to reaching a deal for greater regional fiscal discipline as well as an agreement over a second Greek bailout.

* Iraq: Several Iraqi government officials are none too pleased over the alleged use of "unarmed aerial vehicles" (also known as drones) by the U.S. in Iraq’s territory.

* Canada: Three members of a family where convicted of murdering four female siblings in a 2009 “honor killing” that was described by a judge as "cold-blooded (and) shameful".

* Japan: New government data revealed that the Japanese population would decrease by one-third by 2060 due to low birth rates coupled with a rapidly aging populace.

Image Source– Flickr via Images_of_Money (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources – ABC News, UPI, CBS News, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: January 30, 2012

* South America: Funerals where held yesterday in Peru for some of the twenty-seven victims killed in a fire at a drug rehab clinic while the official death toll from last week’s office building collapse in Rio de Janeiro rose to seventeen.

* U.S.: The police chief of East Haven, Connecticut will step down from his post days after four officers where accused of racial profiling and harassing Latino residents.

* Venezuela: According to police kidnappers freed the Mexican ambassador to Venezuela and his wife this morning after they where abducted in Caracas on Sunday night.

* Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo’s medical team said that the cancer that was first diagnosed in August 2010 is now in “complete remission.”

Video Source – euronews via YouTube

Online Sources- LAHT, CNN, USA TODAY, Reuters, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: January 27, 2012

* Guatemala: A judge ruled that there is enough evidence to try ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity during his rule thirty years ago.

* South America: A Brazilian prosecutor will reportedly file criminal charges against Chevron regarding a November 2011 oil spill while a U.S. federal appeals court threw out an injunction seeking to block enforcement of an $18 billion ruling against the oil giant in Ecuador.

* Cuba: Construction could begin as early as this weekend of a deep-sea oil drilling rig off the Cuban coast that has raised concerns among some U.S. politicos.

* Paraguay: According to a Paraguayan environmental group deforestation in the Chaco region increased by 23% last year compared to 2010.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- CNN, Reuters, Bloomberg, Sun-Sentinel.com, Latinamerican Press

Today’s Video: Turn on the News (Revisited)

Note: For the next few days our daily “Today’s Video” posts will examine the freedom of the press in several Latin American and Caribbean countries.

On Tuesday media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (or RSF based on its French initials) published their tenth annual press freedom index. Unfortunately the rankings decreased for most Latin American and Caribbean states including several countries whose position plummeted in 2011 compared to the previous year.

Chile nosedived by 47 spots and was ranked 80 out of 179 countries on the RSF index. Numerous factors accounted for such a sleep decline according to RSF:

In Chile, where student protesters questioned the over-concentration of media ownership, violence against journalists included beatings, cyber-attacks and attacks on editorial staffs. Many of these assaults, often accompanied by heavy-handed arrests and destruction of equipment, were carried out by abusive armed police who were rarely called to account.

Last week the Chilean government dropped their support of a controversial measure that would’ve permitted police to seize media images without a court order. Dubbed the “Hinzpeter Law” after the Chilean Interior Minister, the plan was decried by media groups and free speech advocates. Mauricio Weibel, president of Chilean Foreign Press Association, reportedly warned that the measure could damage Chile’s image and might be factored in to the RSF’s rankings.

In September 2011 we highlighted the case of an Argentine TV news crew who claimed unknown assailants while covering protests in Santiago attacked them. Less than a month after that, police arrested Chilevision journalist Luis Narváez after his cameraman was bumped into and possibly assaulted by an officer. As the following video shows, Narváez was detained seemingly for no reason despite him showing officers his press card and claiming his innocence:

Unfortunately Narváez wasn’t the only media member apparently targeted by the authorities while covering student protests in early October.

In our next "Today's Video" installment we’ll examine another South American state that plummeted in the latest RSF press freedom index.

Video Source – YouTube via hersome

Online Sources- Reporters Without Borders, IFEX, Washington Post, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: January 26, 2012

* Ecuador: The government might shut down “underground clinics” that allegedly abuse their clients in order to “cure” their homosexuality.

* Argentina: In the latest war of words over the sovereignty of the Falklands/Malvinas, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner blasted British Prime Minister David Cameron for “trying to paint us as bad guys.”

* Nicaragua: A statement from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Nicaragua's recent elections were “a setback to democracy” and added that President Daniel Ortega must be held accountable.

* Venezuela: With just over two weeks until the opposition presidential primary election, Miranda governor Henrique Capriles got a major endorsement from former candidate Leopoldo Lopez.

Video Source – CNN

Online Sources- MSNBC, BBC News, Voice of America, Reuters

Daily Headlines: January 25, 2012

* Ecuador: A court suspended yesterday’s appeals hearing into the controversial libel case pitting President Rafael Correa against the former opinion editor of Ecuador’s El Universo newspaper.

* U.S.: Four New Haven, Connecticut police officers including the president of the police union were arrested and charged with harassment and excessive force against members of the Latino community.

* Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos issued an apology for the massacre of approximately fifty villagers by paramilitaries in 1999.

* Guatemala: Thousands of people climbed to the top of the dormant Volcan de Agua as part of an anti-domestic violence protest.

Video Source – YouTube via teleSUR (The directors and former opinion editor of El Universo are seeking that an appeals court overturn a July 2011 decision that sentenced them to prison and awarded President Rafael Correa $40 million).

Online Sources- CNN, ABC News, BBC News, MSNBC

Daily Headlines: January 24, 2012

* Haiti: Four months after Uruguayan peacekeepers where accused of raping a Haitian man, investigations have been launched into two new cases of alleged “sexual exploitation of children” by U.N. staff.

* U.S.: Media giant News Corp. and Colombian broadcaster RCN will reportedly cooperate in order to create a new Spanish-language broadcast network to rival Univision and Telemundo.

* Brazil: The computer hacker group Anonymous attacked websites of Brazil's federal district as part of its protest against the closure of the Megaupload website.

* Mexico: Police killed in a gunfight Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia, a “high-ranking aide” to waned Sinaloa drug gang leader Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

Image Source – Flickr via Embajada de EEUU en Paraguay (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources- BBC News, Reuters, Times of India, NPR

Daily Headlines: January 23, 2012

* U.S.: The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a lower court decision that would’ve allowed for the redrawing of Texas Congressional districts based on the state’s growing Latino population.

* Cuba: Berta Soler, the head of the Ladies in White dissident group, accused the government of “murdering” prisoner Wilman Villar Mendoza who died last week after going on a hunger strike.

* Brazil: Authorities allowed families in Sao Paulo’s Pinheiros favela to return and pick up their belongings after police raided the “sprawling settlement of landless workers” yesterday.

* Chile: In a unanimous decision the Chilean Supreme Court convicted a pair of retired military generals of illegally selling weapons to Croatia in 1992.

Image Source – Flickr via jasleen_kaur (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources – Reuters, Al Jazeera English, ABC News, Chicago Tribune

World Watch: Etta and Johnny

* U.S.: The world of music is in mourning after the deaths this week of critically acclaimed singer/songwriter Etta James and “godfather of rhythm and blues” Johnny Otis.

* Italy: While the captain of the capsized Costa Concordia continues to face intense scrutiny over his role in the accident, the ship’s owners may soon face a class-action lawsuit in the U.S.

* Nigeria: At least seven people are dead in the northern city of Kano reportedly due to sectarian attacks.

* Afghanistan: France halted its military operations in Afghanistan and threatened to pull out its troops after four French soldiers were killed in combat on Friday.

Video Source– YouTube via rovingeye2

Online Sources – CNN, The Telegraph, BBC News, Voice of America, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: January 20, 2012

* Cuba: Political dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza, seen in the above video leading a small protest last November in Cuba, died after a fifty day hunger strike.

* Dominican Republic: Major League pitcher Fausto Carmona was arrested by Dominican authorities who accused him of using a false identity to try to obtain a U.S. visa.

* Venezuela: According to the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory the number of prison deaths spiked last year to 560 while nearly 1500 inmates were injured due to violence in correctional facilities.
* Peru: Archeologists working on sites on Peru's northern coast concluded that people ate popcorn up to 6700 years ago, more than 2000 years earlier than thought.

Video Source– YouTube via FHRCuba

Online Sources – Monsters and Critics, National Geographic, ESPN, ABC News

Daily Headlines: January 19, 2012

* Latin America: According to a Guttmacher Institute report 95% of abortions in Latin America are considered “unsafe” and the region has one of the world’s highest abortion rates.

* Guatemala: Despite promising an "iron fist" against traffickers, recently inaugurated president Otto Perez Molina suggested that drug decriminalization should be debated "as soon as possible."

* Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo signed a decree declaring a ninety-day “food emergency” due to a drought that has affected the country for nearly two months.

* Panama: Work on expanding the Panama Canal was halted after employees seeking higher wages went on strike.

Video Source – YouTube via teleSUR English (Last month the Uruguayan Senate passed a bill designed to decriminalize some forms of abortion. Most Latin American countries have laws that ban either a majority or all forms of abortion.)

Online Sources – UPI, Hispanically Speaking News, InSight Crime, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: January 18, 2012

* El Salvador: President Mauricio Funes issued a formal apology for the state’s role in 1981’s El Mozote massacre, which claimed the lives of over 1000 civilians.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez defended incoming defense minister Henry Rangel Silva against allegations that he helped drug traffickers and Colombian guerillas.

* Honduras: Over 150 U.S. Peace Corps volunteers left Honduras due to concerns over violence and security.

* Brazil: Police will reportedly continue to look into allegations that a contestant on the Brazilian version of "Big Brother" raped one of his housemates.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources – NACLA, CNN, Reuters, BusinessWeek

Mexican TV Clown Apologizes for Jokes Against Dead Kids

Mexican comedian Sergio Verduzco, better known as Platanito the Clown, apologized after joking about a fire that killed nearly fifty children in 2009.

“I am a clown that wants to create laughter rather than cause pain,” said Verduzco in a video statement via YouTube. He added “It was not my intention nor that of my show to hurt the memory of the children” either killed or injured as a result of the deadly Guardería ABC (ABC Nursery) blaze in Sonora state.

Despite his apparent contrition Verduzco nonetheless claimed that his TV show is for adults and that jokes shown came from his live and unedited stage show. “Making negative comments about me…will not solve the nation’s problems,” said Verduzco in response to the fierce backlash against his insensitive humor.

The controversy emerged after a video clip of was posted on YouTube from one of his stage performances. (Translated text below):

“Do you know why Michael Jackson died? Out of desperation because they torched a nursery up in Sonora…Besides, now there is no nursery. They opened a joint called ‘Kentucky Fried Children’”.

Verduzco has faced a mountain of criticisms since the video was posted on Monday. “As a father it made me cry,” said Julio César Márquez, head of a group representing victims’ families. Twitter users using the #FueraDelAirePlatanitoShow called on people to boycott Platanito’s stage show and TV program. Sonora governor Guillermo Padrés Elías said that he would do “whatever is at my reach so that (TV network) Televisa can feel our indignation.”

The June 2009 Guarderia ABC fire killed forty-nine children and left over one hundred injured. A subsequent investigation concluded that numerous safety faults led to such a high death toll including “poor infrastructure of the daycare…and a lack of employees to carry out an appropriate emergency response.”

President Felipe Calderon signed into law last October a measure aimed at preventing tragedies like the Guarderia ABC blaze. The “Ley de Guarderías” (Nursery Law) establishes new safety regulations for all day care centers and provides additional federal oversight of these facilities.

Video Source – YouTube via SinEmbargoMX

Online Sources – Univision.com, El Universal, El Colombiano, The Latin Americanist, Latin American News Dispatch, Global Voices Online

Daily Headlines: January 17, 2012

* South America: Frenchmen Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Depres won in the car and motorcycle categories, respectively, of the Dakar Rally that wound through Argentina, Chile and Peru.

* Argentina: A federal judge opened an investigation into possible human rights abuses committed in Spain during the 20th-century dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

* Cuba: The family of imprisoned Cuban dissident Wilman Villar reportedly said that he “is in a coma and dying with pneumonia, and breathing only with a machine.”

* Venezuela: Oil minister Rafael Ramirez said that Venezuela will opt out of settling disputes with the World Bank’s international arbitration body days after the panel ordered Venezuela to pay $255 million to Exxon Mobil.

Image Source – Flickr via edowoo (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources – Motorsport.com, GlobalPost, Miami Herald, New York Times

Daily Headlines: January 16, 2012

* Guatemala: Former general Otto Perez Molina, who was sworn-in as president on Saturday, ordered the army to combat drug cartels and "neutralize organized crime".

* Venezuela: The foreign ministry confirmed the closing of the Venezuelan consulate in Miami days after the U.S. expelled the office’s consul general due to allegations of a “possible cyber-attack”.

* Chile: Will student protest leader Camila Vallejo run for the Chilean congress next year?

* U.S.: Daimler AG issued an apology over the use of an image of Ernesto “Che” Guevara to promote Mercedes-Benz autos.

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press (Gunmen killed congressman Oscar Valentin Leal Caal on the eve of the presidential inauguration of Otto Perez Molina).

Online Sources- Reuters, CBS News, Toronto Star, Mercopress